The powerful James Webb space telescope successfully completed the last stage of its deployment, unfolding his last main mirror and getting ready to begin to study each phase of the history of the cosmos.
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The James Webb Space Telescope will begin to study each phase of the history of the cosmos. Photo: AFP.
Engineering teams held at the Space Telescope Science Institute en Baltimore, Maryland, the moment the NASA advertised in Twitter that the final wing was ready.
- “The final wing is now deployed,” wrote the NASA in Twitter, explaining that it was still pending to finish securing it in place.
“I am very excited regarding this, a wonderful milestone”,
Thomas Zurbuchen, a NASA engineer said during a live video feed.
Because the telescope James Webb is too large to fit in the nose cone of a rocket in its operational take-off configuration, it was transported folded as a origami.
Deployment has been a complex and challenging task, the most daunting project ever attempted, according to the NASA.
On Saturday morning, engineers sent a command from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, for the final section of the gold mirror display.
After the mirror was secured in position at the 1:17 pm (18H17 GMT), “The team declared all major deployments completed successfully,” highlighted the NASA.
“I want to tell you how excited and emotional I am right now,” said the engineer. Book back in live video streaming. “We have deployed a telescope in orbit.”
Webb, the most powerful space telescope ever built and successor to Hubble, took off in an Ariane 5 rocket from the French Guiana last December 25 and is heading to its orbital point, to 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
Although the Webb will come to your spatial destination, known as the second Lagrange pointIn a matter of weeks, you still have another five and a half months of setups to go.
- The next steps include aligning the optical elements of telescope and calibrate your science instruments.